Natural Occurances
- Drought
- Lack of rainfall in a forest can effect the health, size, and number of trees living in a forest.
- Lakes and rivers could become dried up, which can effect the efficiency of dams and the production of hydroelectric power. Also, watering and irrigating crop land could be effected.
- Crop failure can result from droughts. Several crops, such as corn, can be used as a renewable resource (Deadly 2004).
- Droughts increase the possibility of forest fires by drying out dead leaves and other material on forest floors. Forest fires can spread for thousands of acres and wipe-out forests (Deadly 2004). Destruction of these forests can be very harmful because wood and other forest products are the basic raw materials for several of the nation's largest industries (United States 1991).
- Tornado
- Tornados can travel as fast as 300 mph (Tornado 1996).
- Their path of destruction ranges between a few miles up to 50 miles (Tornado 1996).
- The power of tornadoes can have disasterous effects on forests and crop fields, which are important renewable resources.
- Tornados can destroy highways and roadways which can effect gas tankers bringing gas and propane to fill cars and heat homes. They can also knock out power lines supplying electricity to houses.
- Hurricanes
- Hurricanes can produce winds as fast as 155 mph (Cabral 2007).
- These storms can stretch 300 miles across and can bring extreme flooding and rain, as much as 16 inches per day (Cabral 2007).
- Oil rigs can be damaged by hurricanes. When oil rigs are damaged, the price of gas and oil can increase.
- Hurricanes effects on oil rigs